Notes from Sunday 14 April 2013 ..
Speaker: Pastor John Emeh
Key Passages: Genesis 21:1, Genesis 31:1-12
Pastor John Emeh began by prophesying that the Church would experience the visitation of God, hinged on the condition of members being prepared for such a visitation. Pastor Emeh admonished the church to pray about the divine visitation, fast about it and to decide what they want the Lord to do for them during the Church Convention Week (23rd-30th of April 2013). He advised that members should come with a prepared and expectant mind and heart, illustrating with the biblical examples of Naaman in 2Kings 5 who had leprosy, and the widow of Zarephath in 1Kings 17: 7-16 who both were touched by God because of their preparedness.
The greatest thing a man can experience is the transforming power of God’s blessings. We have to understand and utilize the principles that cause transformation to experience the transforming power of God. Abraham, before God called him at the age of 75 was a failed business man. However God called him out of his family to go to a place where he would show him. Abraham followed God obediently (Genesis 12:1). When blessing Abraham, God looked around and saw non greater than himself. God swore by his own self to bless him! It is only through the blessings of God such as those bestowed on Abraham that a man can experience transformation. When Abraham was old and frail, he gave his servants things, but he blessed Isaac. When Isaac wanted to run away, God told him ‘I will bless you in this place’. Isaac stayed as God commanded and sowed in that land. The effect was a 100 fold return on what he sowed. The word and the blessings of God make a difference in the life of a person. Nothing more!
Pastor John prophesied that members of the Church who believe will be blessed in the very place they are in. He used the life of Job as an example: after the days of his trials, after his affliction, the bible says the end of Job’s life was better than the beginning. God blessed him incredibly. Pastor admonished the church to decide to walk in Divine Blessings before and after the upcoming convention. He declared an end to toiling and suffering and the beginning of a new season: the beginning of a season of Favour Psalm 102:13.
In Luke 5:1-7, Peter had toiled for long at sea with no catch. Jesus said to him ‘launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch’. Peter did so and his story changed. He had so big a catch that his net began to break, so big a catch that he had to call other fishermen to help with the blessings, and so big a catch that his boat began to sink under the weight of the fishes. May you experience the blessings of the Lord so richly that you would have no room to take it all!
The words of Hannah after God had answered her prayers: ‘He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the beggar from the ash heap’ (1 Samuel 2: 8). God indeed never runs out of supply. We humans are the ones in need of more containers. Again, Pastor Emeh asked the church to come with a prepared heart to receive from the Lord during the convention: he pleaded that people should come with vessels as large as the blessings they hope to get from the convention.
Five Principles of walking in Divine Blessings
- Obedience
To walk in divine blessings, 1 Kings 17:3, a Christian must be obedient to the living word of God. He told the story of a certain Attorney who the Lord asked to give all he had in his account (N3,000) for his use. Soon after that, the man had a nudging to stand in front of a certain building where he saw a foreigner being mugged. He rescued the foreigner, they exchanged business cards, and parted ways. Two (2) weeks after that, he was invited overseas, all expenses paid, flew first class and was appointed a solicitor to the company of the man he helped. The job offered him a $260,000 salary package! Just like Mary rightly said, whatever he tells you to do, do it! John 2:5.
- Vision and Revelation
You are a product of what you said yesterday. What a man can see is what he can get from God. Pastor John defined vision as a picture of a man’s destiny, and revelation is needed to interpret that vision. The bigger your sight, the bigger the size of your life.
- Law of Cause and Effect
There is always seed time and harvest time. There is a time to plant into the future and a time to reap. It is in the same measure that one sows that reward is reaped. To reap, one must be a giver.
- Sow Seeds of Words
Confession is another principle required to successfully walk in divine blessings. Confessions must be in rhythm with the scriptures to be effective.
- Relationship
All of the above four points are nothing if a man has no relationship with God. Give your life to Jesus and enter into a covenant relationship with him.
